Earl Wesley Berry Execution, MS

[janet]

Attorney General Jim Hood is asking the State Supreme Court to set a new execution date for Earl Berry.

The Attorney General filed papers requesting Berry be executed by May 5th.

Berry was convicted and sentenced to death for abducting and fatally beating and stomping a woman in November 1987. He was granted a last minute reprieve in October of last year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a Kentucky case on lethal injection procedures.

The court has since ruled the injection process can stand and has turned down Berry's appeal.

(source: WLBT News)

Note: May 5th is Earl Berry's birthday.

[pumpkinpie]

Mississippi Preparing to Execute Man Despite Strong Evidence of Mental Retardation

Earl Berry is scheduled to be executed on May 21 in Mississippi, despite evidence that he has mental retardation. Judicial review of this evidence has been denied because his former lawyers failed to file the evidence in a timely fashion. This would be the second execution since the U.S. Supreme Court approved Kentucky's method of lethal injection on April 16. Last month, a psychologist concluded that Berry had an IQ of 75 or below and “significantly sub-average intellectual functioning and … meets the criteria to be classified as mentally retarded.” The U.S. Supreme Court banned execution of those with mental retardation in Atkins v. Virginia (2002).

Affidavits describe Berry’s slow development, head injuries sustained as a child, multiple suicide attempts, and that, even as an adult, he was never able to live independently. When Berry was discharged from a Mississippi prison hospital at 25, his release followed a suicide attempt and he was diagnosed with “suicidal gestures/mentally retarded.” During his school years, Berry’s IQ was tested at 72. In 1992, a psychologist also testified that Berry suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
(Amnesty International, "Death Penalty/Legal Concern: Earl Wesley Berry," www.amnesty.org, May 13, 2008; see also (Miss.) Daily Journal, May16, 2008). See Mental Retardation and Mental Illness.

www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2721&scid=64

This man should not be on death row at all! He's mentally retarded and has schizophrenia. This execution really needs to be stopped!

[pumpkinpie]

Phone: [phone]- The Governor of MS. Maybe some calls might help!

[janet]

Unfortunately, all the telephone calls, faxes, and letters that were sent to Governor Haley Barbour didn't have any effect whatsoever. Mr. Berry's attorneys launched every appeal possible until the end, which came at 6:20 p.m. on the 21st of May.

It's interesting to note that Attorney General, Jim Hood was a close friend of the victim and her family.

Mississippi is now attempting to schedule three executions before the end of this year.